Election Day is here, with polls opening at 5 a.m. Eastern and the entire House, a third of the Senate, and governorships in 36 states on the ballot. More than 54 million ballots were already banked during early voting — roughly nine million more than 2022 — and the first closings hit at 6 p.m. Eastern in parts of Kentucky and Indiana. A rare tied Senate outcome is live enough that Vice President JD Vance's tiebreaking vote is part of the math.
Six in ten voters name the cost of living as their top economic worry, and Trump's approval on inflation sits at a dismal 22 percent even after the headline rate eased to 2.7 percent. His overall job approval landed at a record-low 36 percent in Fox News polling, with Democrats holding a 54-45 edge on the generic House ballot. Grocery-aisle math, not foreign policy, is what most voters say sent them to the polls.
Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers over her own party's Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, calling it "a decision of conscience." House Democrats are now demanding formal consequences, and left-wing commentators have piled on. Reports say Stevens denied the endorsement rumor as "not true" just hours before confirming it.
Investigators now believe parts of the Learjet 60 broke off before it slammed into a Palm Beach County neighborhood Sunday, killing all nine aboard. The Austin-to-Bahamas flight reported turbulence, icing, and an overspeed condition at 35,000 feet before entering a dive that reached 30,000 feet per minute. Among the dead were a tech entrepreneur, his wife and two young children, and a 20-year-old copilot who earned her license at 17.
American forces struck Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian fire targeted a US aircraft, with officials calling the action strictly defensive rather than a new campaign. Iran's state news agency reported five explosions across the island, home to an underground missile site, a naval base, and a major desalination plant. Tehran's chief negotiator says the ball is in Washington's court while Qatari mediators push a three-day confidence-building plan to restart direct talks.
Moscow launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine Ukrainian regions overnight, knocking three of DTEK's five thermal plants offline and forcing emergency blackouts in Kyiv and six other regions. Separately, the death toll from a strike on a southern humanitarian aid distribution site climbed to 31, with dozens still missing. Trilateral talks with the United States are slated for next week in Abu Dhabi — the first since February.
Spanish investigators say the 20-year-old believed to have organized Barcelona's October riots traveled to France before the unrest erupted, and he has been denied bail. His arrest came hours before the Blocus group planned coordinated Halloween riots across Spain's major cities — which never materialized. Barcelona's October 24 disorder saw roughly 100 arrests, including 27 minors, around Placa de Catalunya and La Rambla.
Attackers remotely forced internet-connected supermarket fridges into defrost mode late Sunday, driving temperatures from sub-freezing to roughly 122 degrees Fahrenheit and destroying millions of euros of food. More than 100 stores and suppliers across nine countries were hit, including Carrefour, EDEKA, Spar, Colruyt, and IKEA — the second such strike in weeks after an earlier incident touched 700-plus stores. The EU's agriculture commissioner called it a deliberate bid to sabotage Europe's food supply.
Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have flagged an object designated 2026 ED138 that may be among the largest dwarf planet candidates ever found in the outer solar system. Estimates put its width between 370 and 930 miles, and it currently sits about 4.3 billion miles from the sun — well past Pluto's average orbit. Confirmation will take follow-up observations to pin down its true size and shape.
Appearing on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday, Bill Murray turned to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and asked him to say the words "my dog just died" — purely to see whether Hassett's permanent smile would survive it. The ambush landed in the middle of a serious segment on prices and the economy. Hassett, to his credit, kept smiling.
